Working from home poses multiple dangers. I mentioned my struggles with procrastination in my last post – today I have to tell you about ‘The Kitchen Problem’. Throughout my working day, I am never more than 6 or 7 paces from the kitchen and all the good things that live there. When temptation is so close, the urge to wander in and make a snack presents itself approximately every 45 minutes.
I have developed a coping strategy: tea. I’m now getting through around 8 or 9 cups of tea per day (feels great to live up to my national stereotype). However, the kitchen and my own appetite have developed a counter strategy: biscuits. I expect this arms race of desire and denial will continue, but in the meantime let me tell you about my current biscuits of choice (yes, 2 of them).
There’s a significant amount of irrationality in branding isn’t there? We consumers make choices based on colours and designs, often without even realising that we’re being influenced. If we stopped to think logically about it, I expect many of would concede that there’s probably no significant difference between product A and product B. All the same, for some reason we keep picking product A.
Today’s Brazilian Brand is one that I took to instantly, though I’m fairly sure it is in no way superior to other brands. I just like it.
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Sal Cisne
Name: Sal Cisne
Product: Table salt
Description: The Sal Cisne salt refinery was built in Cabo Frio (150km east of Rio de Janiero) in 1949. They have a range of products, from big bags of sal grosso (coarse salt, essential for the churrasco) to smaller containers of table salt. But of all their products, one (or should that be two?) stands out.
The official name for this chirpy couple is the rather dull saleiro ovo (egg salt cellar), l but I think that most of us know them better as Senhor e Senhora Sal. As you can see, Mr Salt wears a blue cap while Mrs Salt has a pretty red boater. When I first saw this pair in the supermarket, I wondered “Apart from the hats, what’s the difference between Mr and Mrs Salt?”. The answer? Absolutely nothing! They both contain perfectly normal table salt.
Verdict: I like them! What can I say? I’m an irrational consumer! I could try to justify my preference by saying that the egg shape fits in the hand nicely, that the little hats actually do a very good job of keeping the salt dry and free-flowing, but in reality I just like having a happy little salt man in the kitchen.
Brazilian Brands is back! Today’s item in the spotlight has a somewhat romantic association which reminds me of a British confectionery favourite. Rolos were (and possibly still are) milk chocolate covered caramels that came in a tube-shaped wrapper. The tag line was “Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?”. I suppose this led romantic 9 year olds to handing over a half melted choccy to the object of their desire (not that I ever gave or received one).
Anyway, on to the Brazilian chocolate for the romantically minded.
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Sonho de Valsa
Name: Sonho de Valsa
Product: Chocolate bonbon
Description: Sonho de Valsa was released by Lacta in 1938 and they say that the packaging hasn’t changed much in all those years.
As you can see, the chocolate comes in a very distinctive pink wrapper and sports a fairytale couple having a little dance. The dance in question is a valsa (waltz) and apparently the musical notes that you can just make out between the images of the couple are from an actual waltz by Johann Strauss!
Break open the wrapper and you will discover a milk chocolate covered ball. The chocolate is covering a crispy sphere, not unlike a Ferrero Rocher. Bite through the shell and you find a crunchy, buttery cashew nut filling.
Creamy cashew filling surrounded by a crunchy wafter shell and a layer of milk chocolate. Very sweet, very tasty, hits the spot.
Verdict: Am I actually turning into a Brazilian? Sonho de valsas are seriously sweet but I like them! I like the crunch from the crispy wafer shell and I like the creamy, crunchy cashew filling.
Apparently these sweets were originally designed to appeal to women (hence the mushy name) and they are now a classic gift “for your loved one”. It seems like it must have worked because Lacta’s rivals, Garoto, brought out the virtually indistinguishable Seranata de Amor (Seranade of love) in 1949.
As romantic gestures go it’s not quite up there with a dozen roses, but hey, it tastes good so stop complaining! I’ll leave you with more sappy mush highlighting Sonho de Valsa’s marketing ploy.
Awww, it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye isn’t it? It isn’t?! Oh you heartless people!
https://i0.wp.com/eatrio.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_00000211.jpg?fit=448%2C337&ssl=1337448tomlemeshttps://eatrio.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/eat-rio-logo.pngtomlemes2013-08-16 19:14:032015-10-01 14:21:29Brazilian Brands: Sonho de Valsa
Let me set the scene. It had been a long day. I started at 7.30am with a conference call from home and after getting to the office in Barra, I worked through until around 9pm at which point I was spared the bus ride home by a colleague who gave me a lift to Botafogo in Zona Sul. From there I took the Metro to Glória and then walked up a very steep hill to arrive home at around 10:15pm.
The twin forces of fatigue and hunger were fighting it out inside me, so I opted for a quick bite to eat and then collapsed on the sofa with a glass of wine and made myself comfortable next to Mrs Eat Rio who was watching something on TV. The first glass of wine went down very nicely, so I helped myself to another. Having finished the second glass, I found myself getting drowsy…
I woke up to find that Mrs Eat Rio had also dozed off. Then I looked up and saw this playing on the TV:
Truly terrifying isn’t it? Just to be clear, I only saw that first advert in the compilation (and without the comments that have been added between clips). I was still quite drowsy and wondered if Mrs Eat Rio had slipped something hallucinogenic into my wine. Read more
What is it about chocolate that inspires such adoration? I’m sure you’ve all seen those articles in which “scientists say” all kinds of things about chocolate (it releases endorphins, is good for your heart, etc). But on top of all that science stuff, I think many of us are more than a little sentimental about chocolate aren’t we? I for one could talk for hours about the various chocolate bars and confectionery of my youth (don’t get me started on the infamous case of the shrinking Curly Wurly).
You can gauge the amount of love there is for a product by the intensity of longing that exists among expats who can’t get hold of it anymore (personally I obsess over Marmite, HP Sauce and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk). I wonder how many Brazilians living abroad have saudadefor today’s Brazilian Brand.
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Diamante Negro
Name: Diamante Negro.
Product: Chocolate.
Description: This chocolate bar goes back a long way and (surprise surprise, this being Brazil!) it has a football connection. In 1938, the World Cup was being held in France. Germany had just invaded Austria (the Anschluss even extended to the football teams, leaving the tournament one team short!), but for French journalist Raymondo Thourmagem, the story of the tournament was a Brazilian player, Leônidas da Silva. Thourmagem was so impressed with Leônidas that he dubbed him the Diamante Negro (Black Diamond) and the name stuck.
Lacta, a Brazilian chocolate manufacturer, opportunistically decided to rename their chocolate bar after the great player and again, the name stuck. They came up with a rather nice slogan too: “Viver é bom, com Diamante Negro é melhor” (To live is good, with Black Diamond it’s better).
